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The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting American poets. For over three generations, the Academy has connected millions of people to great poetry through programs such as National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world; Poets.org, the Academy’s popular website; American Poets, a biannual literary journal; and an annual series of poetry readings and special events. Since its founding, the Academy has awarded more money to poets than any other organization.

On a Thought of Wordsworth's

I've read no line of Wordsworth whom the steven
Of Byron hath assailed with bitterest gall,
Save this I came upon, a fragment small
In a romance pseudonymously given,
From Apuleius filched, "Louisa,"—leaven
Of thought impure and pictures passional.
How well the flash of beauty I recall,
The "Spires whose silent finger points to heaven!"
A white dove's feather down the darkness strayed,
A lovely flower abloom in some foul nook.
And now when riming halts and fancy tires,
And Prospero is of Ariel unobeyed,
I over all the margin of my book
Trace group on group of heavenward-pointing spires.

Translation by Agnes Lee. This poem is in the public domain.

Translation by Agnes Lee. This poem is in the public domain.

Théophile Gautier

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I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.
To her fair works did nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.
Through

It lieth, gazing on the midnight sky,
Upon the cloudy mountain peak supine;
Below, far lands are seen tremblingly;
Its horror and its beauty are divine.
Upon its lips and eyelids seems to lie
Loveliness like a shadow, from which shrine,
Fiery and lurid, struggling underneath,